Press Kit
The Bauhaus‐Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung, Berlin
1. Dates and facts 2. Profile texts 3. Collections and archive 4. The building 5. The new museum building
Information provided in December 2018
Press contact: Bauhaus‐Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung Press office and public relations Schillerstr. 9 10625 Berlin (Germany) [email protected] www.bauhaus.de
Esned Nezic Therese Teutsch Director of communication Spokesperson for press office and public relations Tel. (+49) 030 – 25 400 245 Tel. (+49) 030 – 25 400 247
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Fact Sheet
Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung
Offices Bauhaus-Archiv /Museum für Gestaltung Schillerstraße 9, 10625 Berlin Tel. +49 30-254002-0, Fax 030-254002-10 Email: [email protected] www.bauhaus.de
Project space the temporary bauhaus-archiv / museum für gestaltung Knesebeckstraße 1-2, 10623 Berlin Tel. +49 30-254002-0
Director Dr. Annemarie Jaeggi (since 2003)
Staff 24 employees
Legal form Gemeinnütziger Verein (charitable organisation/non-profit organisation)
Board Chairperson Dr. Markus Klimmer
Financing and annual budget Receives funding from the state of Berlin 2017 Budget: c.1.8 m €, consisting of 53 % public funding and 47 % independent income incl. acquisition of third-party funding
Areas of responsibility and activity Double function as museum and archive: . Collecting all documents and objects related to the activities and cultural intellectual heritage of the Bauhaus . Researching the history and influence of the Bauhaus . Exhibiting key works from the Bauhaus collection . Providing an exhibition and discussion platform for topics related to the Bauhaus context as well as contemporary architecture and design
Collection World’s most comprehensive collection related to the Bauhaus: documents and documentary photographs related to the history of the school, to individuals, to the workshops and to products; architectural designs and models, graphic and design objects, fine- art photographs and research library
Visitor numbers 2013: 110,000 visitors, 2015: 116,000 visitors, 2017: 118.800
New museum building Bauhaus-Archiv/Museum für Gestaltung is being renovated in accordance with historic monument requirements during the next few years, with a new museum building being added. the temporary bauhaus-archiv/ While construction work is in progress, visitors are welcomed at museum für gestaltung the temporary bauhaus-archiv in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district. page 2 of 8
Press information
Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung: Profile texts
Short (904 characters incl. spaces): Berlin’s Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung holds the world’s largest collection related to the history of the Bauhaus (1919–1933), the 20th century’s most important school of architecture, design and art. As a design museum, Berlin’s Bauhaus institution presents key works from its collection in a building designed by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius; as an international research facility, it researches the history and influence of the Bauhaus. At the same time, the Bauhaus- Archiv has increasingly committed itself to questions related to contemporary architecture and current developments in design. In the years to come, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus’s founding in 2019, the Bauhaus-Archiv will be receiving a new museum building and the existing building will be renovated in keeping with its status as a listed landmark. While construction work is in progress, visitors can experience a multi-faceted programme at the temporary bauhaus-archiv.
Long (2597 characters incl. spaces): Berlin’s Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung researches and presents the history and influence of the Bauhaus (1919–1933), the 20th century’s most important school of architecture, design and art. It was founded in Darmstadt in 1960 by the art historian Hans Maria Wingler, with the support of Walter Gropius, the first director of the Bauhaus. Its goal has always been to provide a new home for the material legacy of the Bauhaus, which was scattered around the world in 1933. In 1979, after multiple relocations, it finally moved into the distinctive Berlin building designed by Gropius. The Bauhaus-Archiv has since continued its work as both a research facility and an innovative design museum holding the world’s largest collection related to the Bauhaus. In its permanent exhibition, the Bauhaus-Archiv presents the visionary character of the Bauhaus as an avant-garde design school: it exhibits student works created in classes and in the workshops in the fields of architecture, furniture, ceramics, metalwork, photography, theatre and in the preliminary course as well as works of the renowned teachers Walter Gropius, Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Vassily Kandinsky, Josef Albers, Oskar Schlemmer, László Moholy-Nagy and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The Bauhaus-Archiv’s rich holdings have grown continuously since its foundation – through purchases, but above all, through donations. Walter Gropius’s donation of his extensive private archive on the history of the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau still forms the indispensable core of the collection. Important groups of works by individual artists have entered the collection as bequests, donations or permanent loans – for example, a substantial part of the oeuvre of Georg Muche, the artistic estate of Lothar Schreyer, the painted oeuvre of Bauhaus student Hans Thiemann and the graphic design oeuvre of Herbert Bayer. In addition to historical topics related to the context of the Bauhaus, the Bauhaus-Archiv now devotes increasing attention to questions related to contemporary architecture and current developments in design. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus’s founding in 2019, the Bauhaus-Archiv will be receiving a new museum building. While construction work is in progress during the next few years, visitors are welcomed at the temporary bauhaus-archiv. Experimentation with presentation formats and cooperations as well as events is the main focus of the temporary.
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Press information
Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung: Collection and archive
The collection of the Bauhaus-Archiv is the world’s largest and most diverse collection related to the Bauhaus, its history and its influence. Supported by and with the approval of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus-Archiv began gathering its Bauhaus collection as early as 1961. It contains works by students and teachers. The holdings of the collection and archive can be grouped according to the main themes of “Collection of Graphic Art”, “Workshop Projects: Product Design and Industrial Design” as well as “Fine-Art Photography”, “Document Collection”, “Photo Archive” and the research library, with its focus on the Bauhaus. While construction work is in progress during the next few years, the library and archive are closed to visitors.
The Collection of Graphic Art The collection of graphic art comprises over 12,000 sheets, consisting of drawings, watercolours, other works on paper and prints by Bauhaus masters and students. These include the world’s only complete sequence of all of the cycles and portfolios of prints created by Lyonel Feininger, Vassily Kandinsky, Gerhard Marcks, László Moholy-Nagy, Georg Muche and Oskar Schlemmer during the Weimar period as well as each of the “Bauhaus Prints” series. Many artists are represented by examples of their work before or after their Bauhaus period, for example, Vassily Kandinsky through early monochrome woodcuts or Josef Albers and Georg Muche through individual sheets and series from the 1930s to the 1960s. The collection of graphic art also includes works of graphic design, such as posters and other printed matter, advertising designs, typographical designs and also a unique wealth of materials from every area of education at the Bauhaus: from the preliminary course of Johannes Itten, Georg Muche, László Moholy- Nagy and Josef Albers as well as from the courses of Vassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Joost Schmidt, Oskar Schlemmer and Lothar Schreyer. The prehistory of the Bauhaus is documented through drawings by Adolf Hölzel, studies by his student Lily Hildebrandt from his classes at the Stuttgart academy and by numerous works created between 1902 and 1912 by Maria Strakosch-Giesler, a student of Kandinsky in Munich.
The Collection of Workshop Projects: Product Design and Industrial Design The focus of the collection of workshop projects on the area of product design and industrial design offers a comprehensive look at product development at the Bauhaus. In addition to designs, realisations of products created at the Bauhaus are present in the form of unique objects, prototypes and examples from their industrial mass production. The extensive holdings of furniture, lamps, metalwork, ceramics and textiles include design classics, such as the well-known furniture of Marcel Breuer, the teapot of Marianne Brandt and the lamp of Wilhelm Wagenfeld.
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The Architectural Collection The architectural collection comprises around 14,000 drafts, accompanied by numerous architectural models. The most prominent piece is the original Bauhaus model of 1930. The core of the architectural collection is formed by 200 works from classes at the Bauhaus. Particularly for the period under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, these holdings cover every area of teaching – from technical instruction to the use of ground plans for training three-dimensional thinking to interior design. The architecture of Walter Gropius is represented comprehensively in the form of documentary photographs, which are also supplemented by a selection of drawings and blueprints.
The Collection of Fine-Art Photography The collection of Fine-Art Photography comprises a total of around 6,000 prints (including c. 4,000 vintage prints and 2,000 modern prints) by 117 photographers from the Bauhaus, as well as around 1,500 original negatives taken by Lucia Moholy, Herbert Schürmann and Eugen Batz. The heart of the collection is formed by fine-art photography from the 1920s and early 1930s by the Bauhaus teachers László Moholy-Nagy and Walter Peterhans. The collection’s spectrum encompasses experiment and snapshot, composition and portrait, still life and architectural photography. The largest group of works is formed by the estate of Lucia Moholy, featuring her documentary photographs of Bauhaus buildings and products. Photographic works by Herbert Beyer, Marianne Brandt, Erich Consemüller and Pius Pahl as well as by Lyonel, T. Lux and Andreas Feininger also form a part of the collection. The Bauhaus-Archiv also holds a collection – the only of its kind in Europe – of around 500 photographs related to the New Bauhaus, including prints by György Kepes, Nathan Lerner and Henry Holmes Smith.
The Document Collection The central task of the Bauhaus-Archiv is the collecting of “all documents related to the activity and the cultural intellectual heritage of the Bauhaus”. Letters, manuscripts and other written documents, but also printed texts, are gathered together in the collection of documents. Walter Gropius’s extensive private archive related to the history of the Bauhaus during the Weimar and Dessau periods forms the core of the collection of documents. The complete estates or portions of the estates of numerous Bauhaus students and staff, such as Georg Muche, Lucia Moholy or Adolf Behne and Bauhaus-Archiv founder Hans M. Wingler have been added to this, so that the archival holdings of the document collection has now expanded into a group of files stretching 140 metres in length. It contains materials dealing with the prehistory of the Bauhaus and its foundation, an extensive documentation of the political conflicts surrounding the school, a part of the minutes of the sessions of the Council of Masters from the years 1919–1923 as well as documents related to everyday life at the school. A collection of newspaper cuttings from the years 1917–1934 provides additional information regarding the history of the Bauhaus’s reception.
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The Photo Archive With 65,000 photographs, the photo archive of the Bauhaus-Archiv forms a unique archive of images related to the history of the Bauhaus and the people, workshops and products involved with it. Consisting half of originals and half of reproductions, the photo archive material may be divided up into portrait photos, photographs of student works from classes and the workshops, the architecture and design of the Bauhaus as well as related directions. There are 4000 photographs documenting exclusively the person and work of Walter Gropius. There are also extensive holdings of photographic material related to the life and work of Bauhaus masters and students, such as Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Adolf Meyer, Hannes Meyer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, László Moholy-Nagy, Georg Muche, Oskar Schlemmer, Joost Schmidt, Franz Singer and Hans Thiemann.
The Library The research library of the Bauhaus-Archiv contains more than 33,000 items, including secondary literature on the Bauhaus, its context and also the artists, architects and designers connected with it. This includes secondary literature on 20th-century art, architecture, photography and design as well as a generous array of current architecture and design journals.
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Press information
Bauhaus‐Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung: The building
The building housing the Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung is a late work by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius. He planned it in 1964 for the Rosenhöhe in Darmstadt. However, for political reasons, it proved impossible to realise its construction in Darmstadt. Only after Gropius’s death and the relocation of the Bauhaus-Archiv to Berlin did it become possible to construct the building in modified form. Gropius was still able to select the present location along Berlin’s Landwehrkanal. Because the plot of land provided by Berlin’s senate was entirely flat – in contrast to the Rosenhöhe in Darmstadt – modifications to the plans became necessary, and Gropius’s former employee Alex Cvijanovic carried out this task together with the Berlin architect Hans Bandel. The building’s cornerstone was laid in 1976 and its grand opening was celebrated in December of 1979.
The building is characterised by the sawtooth roof designed by Gropius. The distinctive access ramp passing through the building was, in contrast, added by Cvijanovic and Bandel. The southward orientation of the exhibition area also presents a departure from Gropius’s original design – motivated by reasons related to urban planning. It has been a listed building since 1997. Planned by Gropius as the site for a vivid encounter with the Bauhaus, the building now contains 700 square metres of exhibition space, as well as a storage area, an archive of documents and photos, a research library, offices, a museum café and the bauhaus-shop.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus’s founding in 2019, the historic building by Walter Gropius will be renovated in keeping with its status as a listed landmark and supplemented by a new museum building. Construction work will begin in 2019.
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The new museum building
In the next few years, the Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung will receive a new museum building on its site in the centre of Berlin. The historic building designed by Walter Gropius is also being renovated in accordance with historic monument requirements. Against the background of visitor numbers that have been constantly increasing for many years, the centenary of the Bauhaus in 2019 provided a suitable occasion for extending the museum. In the last ten years, visitor numbers at the Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin have doubled, reaching over 100,000 people per year. In 2017, 118,000 guests have come from around the world. Thus the Bauhaus-Archiv is already a part of the premiere league of the top four percent of Germany’s museums in terms of visitor numbers.
A total of 41 international architecture offices submitted contributions to a closed competition held by Berlin’s Senate Administration for Urban Development and the Environment. On 23 October 2015 the competition jury unanimously awarded the first prize for the design of Staab Architekten, Berlin, and recommended that it should be implemented.
The jury for the architecture competition, chaired by architect Hilde Léon, explained the decision in favour of Staab Architekten by stating that the design, ‘with its clear and well thought-out intervention succeeds … in enhancing the existing building while at the same time creating a striking symbolic entrance to the lowered exhibition areas’. A glass tower some 20 metres high is to become an iconic eye-catcher in the urban space and will also serve as the entrance to the museum below it. The flexibly usable exhibition spaces, with an area of 2,300 square metres, are linked to each other and accessible from a gallery running underneath the existing building’s access ramp. The gallery offers a view of the inner courtyard, which will be the central location in the overall architectural ensemble. At the side of the tower, in which rooms for museum educational services and a digital information area will be housed, there will an elongated block along Von-der-Heydt-Strasse housing the cafe and Bauhaus shop. The archive and library will be located in the existing building.
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